I’ll save you the drama, Twitter arguments, and (hopefully) the riots - this is not the “next George Floyd” case. Those who profit from and leverage their political power by dividing us on the basis of skin color will exploit this case beyond all limits of common sense and basic human decency.
But, just remember, they do not care about Jordan Neely - not while he was alive nor after his death. Mr. Neely is merely a convenient prop being used to further an insane woke narrative that equity matters more than equality.
First Thoughts
Like with all cases we should wait for the investigation to be completed and all possible information to be released before we establish concrete conclusions. We should acknowledge that more information could come out that is significant enough to change the opinion of an honest observer. I reserve the right to change my opinion as new information is made available.
If the Fuck Around Find Out meme played out in real life - it would be this case. The notion that a person can terrorize the citizens of New York City (NYC) for years without an eventual consequence is nonsensical.
Who was Mr. Neely?
Mr. Neely was a “houseless”1 man in NYC. He was a part-time Michael Jackson impersonator and a full-time unmedicated schizophrenic. Since 2003 Mr. Neely not only danced his way into the hearts of New York City subway riders but also racked up over 40 arrests.
Many of those arrests were for violent attacks on innocent subway riders - who had the unfortunate luck and committed the serious social offense of being in the vicinity of Mr. Neely when he was in a bad mood. One such attack in June of 2021 was against a 65-year-old woman - whom he sucker punched in the face (Neely victim speaks out). A few months later (November 2021) Mr. Neely punched another 67-year-old woman in the East Village - which landed him in jail for over a year. #believeallwomen #metoo
Since people are arrested only a small percentage (25%) of the time for crimes committed2 - it is reasonable to believe that Mr. Neely has committed far more than 40 assaults and violent criminal acts against undeserving victims.
And, also, yes, Mr. Neely did impersonate Michael Jackson. If that’s all he was doing on May 1, 2023 - he would still be alive.
What Happened?
There is some cell phone footage that has been made public and we have some witnesses who have spoken out about Mr. Neely’s actions that preceded his death.
Witnesses stated that Mr. Neely took off his jacket, threw it on the ground, and then began to pace and yell on the subway - causing other riders to move away from him. Mr. Neely then reportedly began to yell at random passengers, “I want food!”, “I’m not taking no for an answer!”, “I’m read to go back to jail!”, “I’ll hurt anyone on this train!”, and exclaimed that he did not care if he got a “life sentence”.
A 24-year-old Marine (Daniel Penny) approached Mr. Neely from behind, placed him in a chokehold, and took him to the ground. Two other passengers (a white man and a black man) assisted Mr. Penny once Mr. Neely was on the ground. Unlike in the George Floyd case - no bystanders were questioning or verbally opposing the actions of the men. No one is telling them to stop or allow Mr. Neely to go.
It is clear that the other passengers were relieved that someone stepped in and stopped Mr. Neely before he made his threats a reality.
After being in the chokehold for less than three minutes - Mr. Neely stopped responding and medics were unable to revive him. The Medical Examiner concluded that Mr. Neely’s cause of death was “compression of neck (chokehold)”.
Intent
I admittedly place an incredible amount of weight on the idea of intent for all of my analyses.
The intent of Mr. Neely was to threaten strangers on the subway. It is unknown what the ultimate goal of this behavior was. But we know that it was not lawful or reasonable.
The intent of Mr. Penny was to ride the subway and get to his destination without incident. Mr. Penny tried to protect strangers who were frightened and were actively under threat. The ultimate goal was to prevent Mr. Neely from following through with his threats of violence and subdue him long enough for the police to take him into custody.
It is clear that Mr. Penny had no intent to kill Mr. Neely.
Ask yourself this - would you rather be in a subway car with 30 Daniel Penny’s or 30 Jordan Neely’s?
I thought so.
Charges?
It should be no surprise that Al Sharpton, AOC, Ben Crump, and the rest of the usual suspects have called for murder charges to be brought against Mr. Penny. ChatGPT could accurately predict their statements and opinions on this case by just knowing the race of the involved parties.
Charges have likely not been filed by the NYPD and District Attorney Alvin Bragg as there is likely relevant video that has not been made public, witness statements that support Mr. Penny, and the toxicology report on Mr. Neely is either not yet available or indicates that he had a ton of illegal substances running through his system. Illegal street drugs - acting as the perfect bass track to his unmedicated schizophrenia symphony.
Reports are that Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg may convene a grand jury and pursue criminal charges as early as next week.
The attorneys for Mr. Penny released a statement in which they stated that he acted in self defense and that he “never intended to harm” Mr. Neely.
Analysis
It would be difficult for a prosecutor to prove that Mr. Penny possessed “intent” to kill Mr. Penny. Therefore, murder charges would be unlikely.
If charges are brought against Mr. Penny is would likely be some version of manslaughter. Manslaughter is, “the crime of killing a human being without malice aforethought, or otherwise in circumstances not amounting to murder.” Essentially, manslaughter is when a person does something that could cause some harm, has no intention to kill, but the person dies anyway.
The classic example is two guys in a bar fight. Someone throws a single punch, the “victim” is struck, falls backward, hits his head on a barstool, and dies.
There are enough mitigating factors and evidence of self-defense/defense of others for no charges to be filed at all. With the evidence available at this point - I am hoping that no charges are filed against Mr. Penny.
#standwithPenny
New York City Crime
Follow former police officer, professor, and author Peter Moskos for educated and evidence-based information on crime (especially New York City crime).
I learned from Peter’s Tweets (and his cited evidence) that NYC has had 27 homicides on the subways since 2020. Prior to 2020, it took from 2003-2019 for the city to reach 27 subway homicides. The acceleration of violence on the city’s subway system since 2020 is staggering.
Though correlation does not equal causation it is important to note that the NYPD was “defunded” by 1 billion dollars in 2020. The city sacrificed safety for equity. Incidents like this are a predictable result of bad public policy and the reality that citizens are left to fend for themselves against violent maniacs roaming the streets.
Those who will be the most vocal on condemning Mr. Penny are the exact same people who advocate for politicians and policies that make it more difficult for police officers and mental health professionals to involuntarily commit mentally ill and violent individuals like Mr. Neely. He should have been in prison or a mental health institution until he was stable enough to go about his business without threatening strangers for no reason.
It is not compassionate for Mr. Neely or the public to allow him to exist in the throes of mental illness and drug addiction - to be arrested over and over without facing serious legal consequences or forcing treatment/medication to stabilize him.
*Want to see the most dishonest and disgusting example of virtue signaling by a pandering leftist on this case?* → Pander-bear
Active Bystander
The questions that we have to answer:
What should capable citizens do when someone is actively threatening strangers?
When is the appropriate and lawful time to intervene?
Do they have to wait until after an elderly woman is punched in the face?
Is any proactive action on this front legal?
We have to decide what type of society that we want to live in. I’ll be the first to acknowledge that I prefer to live in a world where we all err on the side of intervening early, quickly, and effectively. We should not allow the terrorists to storm the cockpit before we smash them in the head with a drink cart. Meekness in the face of dangerous adversity is not a virtue that anyone should be proud of.
But, I acknowledge that we all have a different standard and limit for when a bystander should activate. As long as we have this conversation rooted in facts and law instead of race and equity - I trust that we will end up with a reasonable social understanding and parallel legal obligation.
Final Thoughts
Daniel Penny’s life will undoubtedly be forever changed. Going forward he will always be stigmatized, called a “racist”3, and will surely be culturally “cancelled”. His future employment options will shrink. He will have to go into hiding and live his life always looking over his shoulder. This is the best case scenario - if he is not charged with/convicted of a crime.
Daniel Penny stepped up and straight into a dynamic situation that he did not create. He risked his own safety and future to protect strangers on the subway. Intent matters.
If you support Daniel Penny and (almost more importantly) the principle of courageous bystanders actively engaging in situations where innocent people are being threatened - speak out and show up.
Now is the wrong time to allow the insane mob to drive our cultural ship into sure destruction.
“Houseless”. WTF. Thank you AOC. If you change the term but do nothing to fix the problem - you can successfully virtue signal to the uninformed.
Without evidence, of course.
Jordan Neely
Thanks for the clarifying comments and thoughts. I couldn't believe my eyes - seeing those "protesters". We need to come up with another name for these rabble rousers - something more appropriate - they're scum!
I have a question as to the emerging facts. I've read so many varying accounts of eyewitnesses as to the amount of time Neely spent under Penny's rear naked choke--could be anywhere from 3 to 20 minutes. Can you give a cite for the 3 minute account, and more broadly is the amount of time Penny applied the choke relevant to any charges he might face. Thank you.